


If this ship sinks

by Atominthewind



Series: The Wind's Fortune [1]
Category: The Wellerman Collab Crew, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Gen, inspired by their the wellerman cover, pirate crew - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:40:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29654211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atominthewind/pseuds/Atominthewind
Summary: The sun is sinking and the crew of the Wind's Fortune is enjoying the evening out on the deck.Captain Jonathan Young does some thinking.
Series: The Wind's Fortune [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2179125
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	If this ship sinks

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know much about most of the guys, but the creative comment section of the Wellerman Collab by Caleb Hyles inspired me to create a whole entire AU based on headcannons, said comment section and one single image. This work is mostly meant to explore the world and the characters to see if I want to make more in this AU. 
> 
> Hope you have fun reading :)

A fresh breeze whisks across the deck, but the men sitting in a circle close to the bow barely even notice the slowly dropping temperatures as the shared rum and laughter seems to warm the air around them. Captain Jonathan Young smiles as he looks over to his crew. They are not a big group, but nowhere on the whole entire world would there ever be any group better fit to man the Wind’s Fortune than his boys. 

If 15 years ago, when he first stuck out on his own, someone had told him that he would one day become the captain of a crew that he might as well call his new family, he would have laughed in their face. He doesn’t do family; he would have told them. And yet, here he is, with the three people who mean so much to him that he can't even find the proper words to express his feelings, and one young man who might be well on his way to join that inner circle.   
He admits, Caleb is slowly growing on him. The boy is the most recent addition to their crew and has only been travelling on their ship for a month, but he is slowly starting to win over the rest of the crew one by one. He can see him right now, telling the rest of the guys a story, talking with his hands just as much as he is talking with his mouth.   
From the morsels of the story that the wind carries over and the repeated pointing towards the parrot on his shoulder it is easy to deduce that Caleb is once more telling the story about how he came to acquire the bird, Rye. It’s a different story every time, and it has slowly become a joke amongst the crew. Sometimes, when there is a lull in the work, they will ask Caleb to tell them the story, and he will take great pleasure to weave them a tale of adventure and straight up idiocy to keep them all entertained.   
The energy he displays now is so different from the dejected, sad boy who had asked to join their crew a month ago in the ports of Regan. Back then they had refused his request and told him to go home, and to be quite honest, Jonathan is starting to think that they got really lucky that Nathan took a liking to Caleb and smuggled him on board, hiding him until they were too far out to turn back or simply throw him overboard.   
It has only been a month, but he has already grown accustomed to the presence of the young man and it was starting to become hard to imagine their beloved ship without his perpetual smile to lighten the sourest of moods. 

The laughter and applause from the small group signals that Caleb’s story has come to an end as the young man sits back with a satisfied grin on his face and slings an arm around Nate’s shoulder. Ever since the latter helped the former onto this ship the friendship between the two youngest members of their crew has been steadily growing. Nathan normally shies away from physical touch, so the way he relaxes under the other mans touch tells volumes about just how much the two trust each other.   
It is a bit of a mystery to Jonathan how to two seem to fit together so well. They both have a mischievous streak, but other than that the two young men could not be any more different. Where Caleb is energetic, talkative and optimistic, Nathan is a lot more reserved and anxious. And with Nate’s aversion to touch and Caleb’s clear desire to be physically close to people he cares about they really should not mix as well as they do. 

Maybe it’s the fact that they are close in age to each other, or that Nate can relate to the feeling of being the newest addition to the crew? He had been the one with that title until Caleb joined them after all. 

Whatever it is that brought them together, it was somehow enough to overcome most of their differences. Jonathan is just thankful that Nate has found someone he feels he can trust. Quite a few people in his crew have a problem with trusting new people and Nate is definitely one of them, with very good reasons. It isn’t easy to trust when you’ve been hurt before.   
Jonathan would never forget the night he first met Nathan. It had been in the early hours of the morning, an hour or two before sunrise, and he had been walking through the streets and back alleys of Port Nazaru, quietly whistling to himself, when suddenly someone ran right into him and the stranger went sprawling right onto the pavement. He had looked so young, barely on the edge of adulthood, and oh so terrified. It had only taken him a moment to make the decision to help this young stranger get away from whoever was pursuing him.   
He often thought back to this night, and never once did he regret his actions. Nate is part of their family now, and their family protects each other. 

Though it might do some of them some good to tone down on the protectiveness from time to time, he thought to himself as he sees the way Pellek is glaring at Caleb’s arm that is still wrapped snuggly around Nathan’s shoulder. Pellek would definitely be the hardest one for Caleb to convince. His second mate is incredibly good at his job as Caleb’s right-hand man and trusted advisor, but he does have a strong bias against any stranger that dares step even just a bit to close to anyone in the crew, so having Caleb on board didn’t do much to make him feel at ease.   
He was the one who initially convinced Jonathan not to let Caleb join them back in Regan, and he had been absolutely furious when he discovered that Nate had smuggled him on board a few days later. It’s not like that is a novelty though. As much as Pellek loved their young navigator, Nate seems to have a hidden talent when it comes to angering Pellek. A talent that he is very aware of if Jonathan is reading the shit-eating grin that Nate shoots Pellek while he leans a bit into Caleb’s side right.   
Pellek’s glare immediately leaves Caleb’s arm to find Nate’s eyes, but he only lazily grins back. Caleb meanwhile stays blissfully ignorant to the whole exchange as he appears to be preoccupied talking with Rye who has taken a rest on top of Anthony’s bandana.   
As much as the exchange amuses Jonathan, it also makes him feel the tiniest bit uneasy. Pellek has a very good reason for his distrustful behaviour, and he fears that Nathan’s current actions might make it worse. He’ll have to talk to Nathan about that later. 

Pellek had been the first to join his crew all those years ago. Yet another young man, fleeing from someone he feared. Though Pellek hadn’t ran into Jonathan. Instead, in an effort to shake off his pursuers he had climbed through the window of the room Jonathan had rented out in a local ratty inn. To say that the not-yet captain was shocked when he woke up to a panicking stranger in his room would have been and understatement, but the shock wore off the moment he saw the blood dripping down his back. It took a while to convince Pellek that he meant him no harm, but once that hurdle was overcome, he got the chance to clean and bandage his wounds.   
The offer to join his (non-existent) crew had been out before Jonathan even properly got a chance to think over it himself.

So maybe Anthony has a point whenever he claims that Jonathan has a soft spot for young, desperate people who just want to get away from something, but he’d take that knowledge to his grave before he admits that their carpenter-surgeon was right about something. Speaking of Anthony, it seems the man had joined whatever one-sided conversation was happening between Caleb and Rye. It only seems fair, since the bird is still sitting proud and tall on his head. 

Anthony had been the second one to join his crew, only a few hours after Pellek. Jonathan had decided that since there were still people out in the city to search for Pellek, it would be best for them to leave as soon as possible, so they had gone to the harbour to find a ship that they could “borrow”.   
Sadly, there wasn’t a single ship in the harbour that day that they could conceivably man with only two people. But just as they were about to give up, Anthony had strolled up to them, all confidence and false bravado, and asked if they needed anyone else for their crew.   
Back then they had accepted the offer because it didn’t seem like they had any other choice, it wasn’t until later, when they were already far out on the sea with the newly named “Wind’s Fortune”, that they found out that he was also running from something. 

He looks back to the group only to see Caleb, red as a crab’s shell stumbling through his words, while Anthony smirks at the newcomer. It seems Anthony had also already grown to like the young man. His joking flirtatious advances were something he only reserved for those he trusted.   
Caleb would get used to it eventually, everyone in their crew had gone through that. It’s just the way Anthony shows others that he cares, and Caleb would have to learn to deal with it. He was part of their crew now after all, and soon enough Anthony’s flirting would be the least of his problems. He had so much more coming for him. 

That last thought startled Jonathan. He’s already thinking of the young man as a permanent fixture in their small group. Part of the crew. Has the boy really already won him over withing the span of just one month? 

He looks over to Caleb, who’s still blushing and bumbling like and absolute idiot, with Nate quietly snickering against his side. 

He sighs. 

Yes, he has.


End file.
